some pieces from a couple of posts...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Sanders [mailto:christopher.sanders@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 7:39 AM
> To: 'eqbards@yahoogroups.com'
> Subject: RE: OT Hardware (was:- RE: [eqbards] New Video Card and more
> Ram - th e results for me...)
>
>
> Forgot to reply to this. :)
>
> Reliability is up...a lot.
Well, I built a couple of hundred pc's in the last year...
Intel - about 1 in 250 doa
AMD - about 1 in 50
Intel - none malfunctioned if it worked out of the box
AMD - about 1 in 30 malfunctioned sometime between out of the box and the
end of burn-in (72 hr running hot & heavy programs)
Just my personal experience working in a pc shop...
OTOH, I've heard great things about the new 1.3ghz AMD's...haven't actually
messed with one, but a friend of mine has built 10-15 machines from them,
and 10-15 intel p4 1.7ghz...He says the AMD's he's built are more stable,
and run as much as 30% faster than the same build as an intel p4, on EVERY
app, games, utilities, and business apps. I'm gonna get one soon and try
it.
>
> On the overclockers forum I frequent, I can recall no posts lamenting DOA
> processors offhand...and these are people who share every step they take
> when OC'ing their machines. :) The 2 biggest processor killers on the
> forum are heat casualties and crushed cores from trying to install
> heatsinks. :)
>
> There is no real reason to not consider equally an AMD machine vs an Intel
> machine, when shopping around.
>
> Atonal
Nah, more bang for the buck...consider also, any pc builder worth their salt
will have filtered the bad processors out before you ever get to see the
machines, i.e. doa rate and failure rate are gonna be much lower than the
builders.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Henrik Holm [mailto:HEH@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 2:27 AM
> To: 'eqbards@yahoogroups.com'
> Subject: RE: OT Hardware (was:- RE: [eqbards] New Video Card and more
> Ram - th e results for me...)
>
> <snip>
> >
> > And a bit more reliable (less out-of-the-box failures with Intel)
> >
>
> Aye, Ive been an avid Intel fan, but do this still count? I know before K7
> AMD had pretty lousy stability and QA. I havent heard about any problems
> with k7 series though??
Dunno, i quit the shop I was working at a little over a month ago, and
haven't messed with any since then, but the failure rate was still pretty
bad about 3 months ago. More than I would trust, but AMD seems to be alot
better about warranty issues than Intel...you can get a replacement AMD
rather quickly (if you didn't nuke it w/ heat or crush it) while Intel
wanted to take a while and test the processor you sent back, etc. (from an
OEM source...most of ya'll won't have that channel).
My take on the whole issue is:
If you need a solid business machine, buy one from the big manufacturers,
i.e. Dell, Gateway, etc. AMD/Intel
If you want a solid gaming machine, buy one from the big gaming
manufacturers, i.e. Falcon Northwest, Alienware, etc. AMD
If you don't mind dinking around, and possibly having some major downtime,
build it yourself. Intel before AMD
If you don't have the cash to invest in one of the big rigs, build it
yourself, but be ready for some pitfalls. AMD before Intel.
Oh, yeah...I have been real impressed with the 2 machines I've seen from
Alienware...One a couple of years ago, was the fastest PII I had ever seen,
doing anything. The latest and greatest my buddy has, AMD 1.3, top of the
line Alienware, absolutely smokes on any task you run on it...he dual boots
between win2k and win98se...and both os's tear up games. (I have no
association to Alienware, don't even own one...but the next machine I buy
instead of build is gonna come from there...hmm...if I ever buy a machine
again...hehe)
MacGrough Mich'Rathe
Bard stuck on bar 40
Solusek Ro Blood Tide